All of Clare's 1824/5 Journal has now been posted on this site. I will be leaving it for research purposes for the forseeable future. Comments on individual entries are, of course, still very welcome. I will seek to answer questions within a day or so.

Recievd another letter from the editor of Bloomfields Correspondence requesting me to alter a line in my sonnet on Bloomfield 'Thy injured muse & memory need no sigh' & asking permission to publish only 2 of them which I shall not agree with either way Editors are troubled with nice amendings & if Doctors were as fond of amputation as they are of altering & correcting the world woud have nothing but cripples.

The hedge-Sparrow in the Box tree has been about 12 days building her nest the Robin in the wall about 14 & the Jenny-wren near 3 weeks heard all through last night the sort of watch-ticking noise calld a death-watch I observed there was 1 on each side the chamber & as soon as one finished ticking the other began I think it is a call that the male & female use in the time of cohabiting a Jenny wrens nest with the outside just built I mean to see how long she is about the lining

Hedge-Sparrow finished her nest in Billing's Box-tree & laid l egg — Walnutt showing leaf — Sycamore & Horse-chestnutt nearly coverd I observed a snail on his journey at full speed & I marked by my watch that he went 13 inches in 3 minutes which was the utmost he coud do without stopping to wind or rest It was the large garden snail

Heard the Cuckoo for the first time this Season — it was said to be heard a week back by a Shepherd — Saw the large Grey Wagtail. I think it a bird of passage as I have never seen it in winter — some young Plants of Ash & Maple showing leaf — Saw a bird with a dark line over each ear I think it one ot the fly catchers

Heard a terrible kick-up with the Rats in the ceiling last night & might have made up a tollerable faith to believe them ghosts — A thunderstorm several claps very loud in the distance came from South West

John Clare Journal

From Monday, 6th Sept 1824 until Sunday, 11th Sept 1825, Clare kept a Journal.
Here is Ronnie Blythe on the subject... "I am writing about the more or less penniless John Clare, whose publishers have sent him a dateless 'Student’s Journal' in which they hope he will make notes for a natural history book... It has no printed dates; so Clare can start it in September".